THE GOVERNMENT has published legislation that will allow cohabiting couples the same tax treatment as married couples.
The legislation, arising from the Civil Partnership Act, will allow registered civil partners the same treatment in matters of income tax, stamp duty, capital acquisitions tax, capital gains tax and VAT. The measures contained in the Finance (No 3) Bill 2011, published by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan yesterday, were among the commitments in the programme for government.
Mr Noonan acknowledged that he was giving effect to a commitment made by the last government that was not possible to carry through because of the early general election.
“The previous government committed to introducing the changes to tax legislation. This was not possible during their term of office due to the early general election but I am now publishing the Finance (No 3) Bill 2011,” he said.
He said the Bill was published separately from the Finance (No 2) Bill 2011, currently before the Dáil, as “it implements changes that go right through the tax system and will require detailed consideration”. The Bill was strongly welcomed by the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, which described it as a critically important development for civil partners.
“It provides important certainty and security for the many same-sex couples who have registered or are planning to register their civil partnerships” said Kieran Rose, its chairman.
“The Bill also provides that a child whose parent is in a civil partnership will be treated the same, for tax purposes, as a child of a married couple. This means, for example, that children of civil partners will be treated the same for inheritance tax as children of a married couple.”
The equality network’s director of policy change, Eoin Collins, said the inclusion of children of civil partners was a significant development as it extended financial protections to children being parented by same-sex couples.
Mr Rose also welcomed the all-party support for the legislation.
Separately, Fianna Fáil yesterday claimed that Mr Noonan had effected another U-turn on promised Government policies. Spokesman Michael McGrath claimed the Government was now preparing to abandon another of the central planks of the Fine Gael election campaign by refusing to rule out any increases in income tax. Mr Noonan told the Dáil yesterday he was not going to rule out any tax initiative, or any tax increase or any tax reduction.
